Champs focused on game

After Western Suburbs coach Roy Masters christened Manly the Silvertails in the late 1970s the bad blood that flowed between the affluent Sea Eagles and the apparent battlers of the Golden West, the Magpies, caused much resentment between players, fans and both clubs management.

All in brawls, cheap shots and illegal play were regular features of premiership games between Manly and Wests in that era. In 1979 after trial game in Melbourne between the clubs erupted into basically unsolicited violence the relationship

After Western Suburbs coach Roy Masters christened Manly the Silvertails in the late 1970s the bad blood that flowed between the affluent Sea Eagles and the apparent battlers of the Golden West, the Magpies, caused much resentment between players, fans and both clubs management.

All in brawls, cheap shots and illegal play were regular features of premiership games between Manly and Wests in that era. In 1979 after trial game in Melbourne between the clubs erupted into basically unsolicited violence the relationship between the players in particular reached an all time low.

There were reports that a legendary brawl between the sides occurred after a 1979 match at Brookvale Oval when the Magpies headed by John Donnelly crashed a Manly function at Sweet Fanny Adams at Collaroy. Players from both sides traded blows before police arrived.

However at the end of the decade shrewd Manly CEO Ken Arthurson almost caused World War 3 when he lured Magpie players John Dorahy, Ray Brown and their superstar international forward Les Boyd across the bridge with huge pay checks.

The Fibro army hate for Manly intensified to unprecedented levels when they saw their favourite son Les Boyd run out in the Maroon &amp; White of Manly at the beginning of the 1980 season.

Boyd from the NSW country town of Cootamundra was a tough, hard running second rower who had starred on the 1978 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain demolishing Great Britain in the final 2 tests of the series. A fixture in representative teams of the era, he was quietly spoken off the field but extremely aggressive on it. As a result he had numerous visits to the judiciary during his days with the Magpies, who played a controversial but successful brand of football under Roy Masters who had coached Boyd on the 1972 Schoolboy Tour of the UK.

After a glorious decade of success Manly stars were reaching the end of the careers and Boyd was seen as the ideal player to lead their forward pack into a new decade.

His career initially blossomed at the Sea Eagles, Boyd played in the Sea Eagles 1982 Grand Final side while making his second Kangaroo tour in the same year.

Manly fans loved his fearless playing style and Boyd featured in many memorable footballing moments that have been etched into Sea Eagle history. This includes two great games:

â€¢ The famous 1981 semi final against Newtown when he and former team mate Tommy Randonikas went toe to toe after a scrum turned into a donnybrook and;

â€¢ The final match at the old Cumberland Oval against the Parramatta which has gone down as one of the greatest games played in history. After a great individual effort Boyd scored a magnificent try in the final minute that levelled the scores at 20 all.

In 1983 Manly was backing up after a heart breaking Grand Final loss to the Eels the previous season. They had been strengthened by the inclusion of Rooster stars like Noel Cleal, Kerry Boustead and Ian Schubert.

However the wind of change had blown over the ARL at the beginning of the season when Jim Commans was appointed to head the Judiciary with a mandate to clean the game up and rid it of the violence that had littered the competition since the early 1970s. Players like Les Boyd would have been at the top of his hit list when he accepted the position and the responsibility of being the Sheriff of the NSWRL.

Commans had his chance after the first State of Origin in that year when Boyd was sighted for using an elbow on Queensland forward Darryl Brohman. Brohmans jaw was broken in the incident and Commans didnt hesitate in suspending Boyd for 12 months.

Boyd later contended that his was given the orders by senior officials in the NSW team to go out and crack a few Queensland heads in the game in the hope that the Blues could restore some pride in their jumper after being roundly beaten in the early Origin series.

This suspension severely impacted Manly premiership chances and despite winning the minor premiership by a country mile the Sea Eagles were defeated by Parramatta in the Grand Final.

After serving his suspension Boyd returned to the field in 1984 and after a handful of matches he was again sighted for eye gouging Canterbury player Billy Johnston in a match at Brookvale.

Commans handed down a record 18 month suspension and this effectively ended Boyds in Australia.

He moved to the UK in 1986 and played for Warrington for 4 successful seasons, he won the Harry Sunderland Medal in 1986 championship Grand Final. He returned to Australia playing for Cootamundra before ending his career with Harden as captain/coach in 1994.